US may lose Pakistan as key ally: FM Khar

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: Pakistan warned the United States it risks losing an ally if it continued to accuse Islamabad of playing a double game in the war against militancy, escalating the crisis in relations between the two countries.   

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was responding to comments by U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who said Pakistan’s top spy agency was closely tied to the Haqqani network.

“You will lose an ally,” Khar said while talking to a Pakistan-based news channel in New York in remarks broadcast on Friday.

“You cannot afford to alienate Pakistan, you cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people. If you are choosing to do so and if they are choosing to do so it will be at their (the United States’) own cost.”

Mullen, speaking in Senate testimony, alleged Haqqani operatives launched an attack last week on the U.S. embassy in Kabul with the support of Pakistan’s military intelligence.

“The message for America is: ‘They can’t live with us, they can’t live without us,” Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters.

“Anything which is said about an ally, about a partner, publicly to recriminate it, to humiliate it, is not acceptable,” said Khar.

The United States has long pressed Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network, which it believes operates from sanctuaries in North Waziristan on the Afghan border.

Pakistan says its army is too stretched fighting its own Taliban insurgency.

The Haqqani network, Mullen said, is a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

Mullen, CIA director David Petraeus and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton all have met with their Pakistani counterparts in recent days to demand Islamabad take action against the Haqqani network.

Any Pakistani offensive against the Haqqanis would be risky. The group has an estimated 10,000-15,000 seasoned fighters at its disposal and analysts say the Pakistani army would likely suffer heavy casualties.

Mahmud Durrani, a retired major general and former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, said both sides should ease tensions to avoid American military action beyond drone strikes or economic sanctions.

“There’s a possibility. It’s wide open. But it will be absolutely, totally disastrous.” AGENCIES

Gaddafi spokesman: 17, including French and British, captured

A spokesman for Muammar Gaddafi said on Sunday that 17 “mercenaries,” including what he called French and British “technical experts” had been captured in the Gaddafi bastion of Bani Walid in Libya.

“A group was captured in Bani Walid consisting of 17 mercenaries. They are technical experts and they include consultative officers,” Moussa Ibrahim told Syrian-based Arrai TV.

“Most of them are French, one of them is from an Asian country that has not been identified, two English people and one Qatari,” he added.

He said the 17 would be shown on television at a later time, but did not give more details.

It was not immediately possible to verify Ibrahim s claims. The French foreign ministry said it had no information regarding the report.

NATO, French and British officials had on Saturday denied a report by Arrai TV that some NATO troops had been captured by Gaddafi loyalists.

Western special forces are known to have been in Libya and to have liaised with anti-Gaddafi officials during the conflict. Private security firms have also been helping anti-Gaddafi forces, according to Western media reports.

US endorses Taliban headquarters in Qatar

The United States has endorsed plans for the Taliban to open political headquarters in the Gulf state of Qatar by the end of the year, British newspaper The Times reported on Monday. The move is designed to allow the West to begin formal peace talks with the Taliban, Western diplomats told the paper. The office of the self-styled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan would be the first internationally recognised representation for the Taliban since it was ousted from power by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Western diplomats told The Times it was hoped that opening a Taliban office in Qatar would push forward the prospect of talks intended to reconcile insurgents with the Afghan government and bring an end to the decade-long war.

Washington is believed to have insisted that the office be located “outside Pakistan s sphere of influence”, the report said.

“It will be an address where they have a political office,” one Western diplomatic source, who was not named, told The Times. “It will not be an embassy or a consulate but a residence where they can be treated like a political party.”

 

The diplomat stressed that the Taliban would not be allowed to use the office in the Qatari capital, Doha, to raise funds.

The Times reported that the Taliban was seeking assurances that its representatives would be free from the threat of harassment or arrest. Britain, which has the second largest contingent of troops in Afghanistan, declined to say whether it supported the creation of a Taliban office in Qatar. “This is a matter for the United States,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

The US ambassador to Kabul said last week that the Taliban must feel “more pain” from increased military pressure before progress can be made in peace talks.

“The Taliban needs to feel more pain before you get to a real readiness to reconcile,” Ryan Crocker said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Gaddafi family fled to Algeria

The Algerian foreign ministry said Gaddafi s wife, daughter, two of his sons and their children entered the neighboring country on Monday. It did not say whether Gaddafi himself was with the family.

It said the U.N. secretary-general and Security Council and the head of Libyan rebel National Transition Council were informed.

The report came as battles raged on two sides of Sirte, the southern city that is the headquarters of Gaddafi s tribe and his regime s last major bastion. The rebels were consolidating control of Tripoli, the capital.

Despite effectively ending his rule, the rebels have yet to find Gaddafi or his family members — something that has cast a pall of lingering uncertainty over the opposition s victory.

The Egyptian news agency MENA, quoting unidentified rebel fighters, had reported from Tripoli over the weekend that six armored Mercedes sedans, possibly carrying Gaddafi s sons or other top regime figures, had crossed the border at the southwestern Libyan town of Ghadamis into Algeria. Algeria s Foreign Ministry had denied that report.

Ahmed Jibril, an aide to rebel National Transitional Council head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said if the report of Ghaddafi relatives in Algeria is true, “we will demand that Algerian authorities hand them over to Libya to be tried before Libyan courts.”

Ahmed Bani, military spokesman of the council, said he was not surprised to hear Algeria had welcomed Gaddafi relatives. Throughout the six-month Libyan uprising, rebels have accused Algeria of providing Gaddafi with mercenaries to curb the revolution.

China backs Pakistan’s anti-terrorism endeavors

BEIJING: China on Tuesday stood by its ally Pakistan amid growing questions in the U.S. about whether the country was complicit in harboring Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader killed in a sprawling mansion in a garrison city close to Islamabad.

Meanwhile, an outpouring of discussion on the Chinese Internet revealed mixed views of bin Laden. Many users said the world was safer following his killing while others—including some prominent social and political commentators—expressed sympathy, and even respect, for the mastermind of the World Trade Center attacks.

After hailing bin Laden’s death as a “positive development in the international struggle against terrorism,” the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday swung to the defense of Pakistan.

A ministry spokeswoman praised Pakistan’s “vigorous” efforts to fight terrorism. “China will continuously and firmly support Pakistan to lay out and implement antiterror strategies based on its own domestic situation,” Jiang Yu told a regular news conference.

Ties between China and Pakistan run deep. China provides significant military support to Pakistan in what many experts describe as an effort to balance India’s political and economic rise.

U.S. administration officials have said they will probe whether Pakistan’s spy service and other government agencies were involved in harboring bin Laden.

One well-known television commentator and personality, Hou Ning, posted what amounted to a eulogy. Bin Laden “defied the most unconquerable country and military with his thin and weak body, continuously embarrassed and defeated them, played a drama that was the most magnificent and respectable in human history,” he wrote. Mr. Hou didn’t respond to a request to comment Tuesday evening.

Yan Feng, a professor of literature at Shanghai’s elite Fudan University, who previously served as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, appeared conflicted by bin Laden’s death in a post on his Sina Weibo account, which he later deleted. “I will not join the troop of crying on the death of bin Laden. I will not hail it either,” he wrote. “But purely from an individual’s point of view, he’s one rare idealist and spiritual soldier in the current world.”

“Both the United States and bin Laden fought for their own faith respectively. Both were perseverant and both had things for others to respect. The funeral in the end also demonstrated
America’s respect for its opponent,” Mr. Yan wrote after bin Laden’s burial at sea in line with Muslim rites.

“Deeply mourning bin Laden,” wrote Weibo user Jiajia Nuwu in comments echoed fairly widely across the site. “Yet another anti-American hero is lost.”

“Is this real? Excellent!” wrote another. “Now the only terrorist left is the United States!”

It is hard to assess how widespread sentiment in favor of bin Laden is in Chinese society. Many Chinese people harbor deep reservations about the way America wields its power in the world, but there is still plenty of affection for Americans and their culture.

The Chinese blogosphere provides an outlet for so-called angry youth, whose online ranting against the U.S., Japan and other foreign countries is sometimes assumed to be a proxy for a rebellion against domestic authority. It’s far less risky to lash out against foreigners than Chinese officials.

An extreme form of anti-Americanism that spouts from the lips of ultranationalists has been fanned in recent years by hawkish elements in the media and security forces.

China often describes itself as susceptible to terrorism, specifically in the far northwestern province of Xinjiang. Separatists there have waged a long, and at times bloody, insurgency against Chinese rule. “Terrorism is the common enemy of the international community,” Ms. Jiang said in an earlier statement regarding bin Laden’s death. “China has also been a victim of terrorism.” AGENCIES

Sudan accuses Israel of strike near Port Sudan

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Karti on Wednesday accused Israel of carrying out a strike on a car near Port Sudan that killed two people.

Sudanese police have said a missile struck the car near the port city on Tuesday.

A state government official, however, has said the strike was carried out by a foreign aircraft that flew in from the Red Sea.

Karachi: Foreign exchange reserves reduced by 72.1 million dollars

According to the figures issued by State Bank of Pakistan, the foreign exchange reserves fell to 17.31 billion dollars in the first week of February. During this period, the reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan fell to $13.76 billion from $13.85 billion, while those held by commercial banks rose to $3.54 billion from $3.53 billion.

Nisar holds Govt responsible for killings of 3 citizens

Opposition leader Ch. Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday held responsible the federal government for the killings of three Pakistanis in Lahore by Raymond Davis as it was issuing visas to everyone.

On point of objection in the National Assembly, he has said that Presidency, Foreign Office, ISI and Pakistani embassy in the US suggest for issuing visas to foreigners. Nisar said that a US diplomat indicated that federal government was ready to expatriate Davis but Punjab government wasnt ready to do this.

Venezuela: Chavez slams protesters for assailing Egyptian embassy

Venezuela: Chavez slams protesters for assailing Egyptian embassyVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez slammed a group of young Venezuelans with Egyptian ties who took over the Egyptian embassy in Caracas on Friday (January 28) in a sign of solidarity with protesters in Egypt demanding Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resign.

Chavez said he was concerned about the actions saying it was unacceptable and that Venezuela has to protect all foreign embassies which are sovereign territory. The Venezuelan leader said the embassy was instructed not to provoke violence and that the protesters peacefully left soon after taking control of the building and being talked down by Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Look at what is happening in Egypt. And just today I spoke with the foreign minister. Something very worrisome happened that should not have happened in Caracas. A group of Venezuelan citizens that are Egyptian entered the Egyptian embassy. They entered peaceably, as Egyptian citizens. They supposedly went to ask for documents but when they were inside they took over the embassy. This cannot be allowed, Chavez said. Meanwhile, President Mubarak refused early Saturday (January 29) to bow to demands that he resign, after ordering troops and tanks into cities in an attempt to quell an explosion of street protest against his 30-year rule. Mubarak dismissed his government and called for national dialogue to avert chaos following a day of battles between police and protesters angry over poverty and political repression.

India refuses to share Samjhauta probe details with Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India has refused to share details of the Samjhauhta bombing probe with Pakistan, TrendPK reported on Tuesday.

According to media reports, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the External Affairs Ministry to tell Pakistan that it cannot share details of the Samjhauta blast investigations right now, as investigations are at a preliminary stage and it would be premature.

This comes a day after Pakistan asked India to provide an early update to it on the investigations into the 2007 Samjhauta Express train bombing in the wake of RSS leader Swami Aseemanand’s confession about the involvement of Sangh activists in the attack.

India’s acting Deputy High Commissioner G V Srinivas was called to the Foreign Office by Director General (South Asia) Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi, who said information on progress in the investigations should be provided by New Delhi “at the earliest”.

Aseemanand, 59, recently confessed to the involvement of Sangh activists in several terrorist attacks, including the bombing of the Samjhauta Express that killed as many as 68 people, including 42 Pakistan nationals.

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